Regarding talking points, you might check out
"https://dodcio.defense.gov/Open-Source-Software-FAQ/"; - kind of the
Defense Department's talking points on OSS.
You might also point out that Microsoft, Google, Zoom, etc. as USE a lot
of open source software in their production systems, as well as
developing and releasing a lot of FOSS software (and pumping money into
even more - e.g., through Google's "Summer of Code.").
Miles Fidelman
On 7/24/20 8:00 PM, Yasuaki Kudo wrote:
Hi,
I think this thread definitely explores many good points - I am new
here but is there any structured discussion system for Free Software
movement? For example, this site runs a discussion software called
"Discourse" https://community.coops.tech/
I have been asked by a contact at a large worker cooperative with over
10,000 members to provide some 'talking points memo' so that he can
promote free software internally.
They are facing the situation where they will become more and more
invested in Microsoft, Google, Zoom, etc or potentially switch to Free
Software ecosystem.
Cheers,
Yasu
On Jul 25, 2020, at 05:39, Miles Fidelman
<[email protected]> wrote:
On 7/24/20 3:14 PM, Roberto Beltran via libreplanet-discuss wrote:
Most people on here already know how bad things are, but I don't
think it's black or white win or lose.
Do we really know how bad things are? Is there a report somewhere
showing, for example adoption in free software, copyleft license and
dependency in proprietary software / noncopyleft software in
numbers and
how it has evolved over the time?
On a side note, do we have success criteria (over achievable
stages, not
just disappearance of proprietary software from the world) that we can
use to compare and good metrics to measure the progress of the
movement?
Funny thing, but...
- Pretty much every funded R&D project that I've been associated
with, has contractual clauses requiring software to be released as
either open source or to the public domain - the leading edge remains
open source
- Pretty much every ISP, Hosting, and Cloud provider relies heavily
on FOSS software - with the bigger ones both funding critical
projects, and releasing a lot of their infrastructure code as FOSS
(Apache & Open Stack come to mind, Lyft's Clutch infrastructure
management platform is looking particularly interesting)
- The vast majority of the world's web sites run on Apache, on Linux
or BSD - and a huge number run on WordPress (all FOSS)
- Savvy IT directors prefer open source software to proprietary
software - not for cost reasons (maintaining software is costly,
whether you pay a vendor to do it or hire people) - but because it's
more flexible, and avoids vendor lock in (less-savvy IT directors use
FOSS because they think it's cheaper) - by the way, that includes
some rather large organizations, like large pieces of the US Marine Corps
Perhaps the real problem is that MOST software doesn't make it into
wide-spread use, and hence cannot assemble a base of support for an
open source effort. Specialized software tends to have smaller
audiences - requiring either a very high price-tag, or a grant, to
support a dedicated development & support team. And then there's the
90% that's a mix of pet projects, poorly implemented, that will never
make it as either commercial or open source.
Yes... there are lots of practical issues with the GNU project &
other libre software efforts - but they have a lot more to do with
lack of focus, design by committee, and, these days, politicization
of language & discussions, and ostracism of key people (e.g.,
Stallman, Torvalds). The flaps over systemd (techno-politics) &
Stallman (gender politics) have been far more damaging to free
software, than financial matters.
All of this is, of course, one man's opinion. Based on 50 years in
the networking business, including a bunch of years at BBN, selling &
leading lots of R&D projects, being the IT department for a
non-profit, and building a small service bureau. And, yes, I rely on
a Mac, and MS Office for lots of things - but I run my servers on
Linux, Apache, MySQL, Postfix, Spamassassin, WordPress, and Sympa.
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown
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libreplanet-discuss mailing list
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--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown
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libreplanet-discuss mailing list
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